Leonardo di ser Piero da Vinci, 15 April 1452 – 2 May 1519), was an Italian polymath whose areas of interest included invention, painting, sculpting, architecture, science, music, mathematics, engineering, literature, anatomy, geology, astronomy, botany, writing, history, and cartography. His art is particularly admired. There are many examples of his art that have reached true iconic status. The Sistine Chapel ceiling, for example, or The Last Supper with its early use of perspective. The Vitruvian Man is another work that would sit at the top of any other artists portfolio, but for Leonardo, even that work takes a back seat to that cultural tour de force, the Mona Lisa.

A half-length portrait oil painting, said to be of Lisa Gherardini, the wife of Francesco del Giocondo, it was painted in the early 1500’s and after a succession of famous owners, was acquired by the Louvre in Paris, where it has resided since 1797. With the recent stupidity in auction prices for art such as this, it’s fair to say that if the Mona Lisa ever came up for sale, it would likely break the $1b barrier. Weirdly, it only really gained this level of fame after it was stolen from The Louvre in 1911 by an Italian patriot, only being returned in January 1914.

Titian was one of the great Italian Renaissance painters, known for his mastery of a wide range of subjects, including portraiture, landscapes, and the mythology and religion that was popular in the 16th century. He was popular throughout his lifetime, indeed, probably the defining artist for European nobility. His body of work was extensive, numbering over 300, with around 280 surviving today, as he continued painting up until his death aged around 88.

Venus of Urbino was completed in 1534, and depicts a nude woman, assumed to be the goddess Venus, reclining on a couch. It’s unusual for a Titian in having a detailed interior background. The painting gets its name from the Duchy of Urbino as Guidobaldo II della Rovere, the son of the Duke of Urbino, who purchased the painting. A 119 x 165 cm oil on canvas, it currently hangs in the Galleria degli Uffizi, in Florence.

Like Monet, Edgar Degas was a French impressionist painter, and his contemporary, often showing works in the same exhibitions. Unlike Monet, Degas did not paint many landscapes, something often considered a core part of impressionism, preferring to concentrate on the human form, particularly dancers, who made up over half his portfolio.

Young Woman With Ibis, currently displayed by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, is a 100 x 75 cm oil on canvas, painted in 1858, and reworked by Degas four years later. The rework included the addition of the Middle-Eastern city in the background, and the two red ibises that now give the work its name. The original image of a pensive woman now has a different feel to it.

Claude Monet was the French painter that helped create, and gave the name to, the impressionist art movement. Impressionism has, as its central philosophy, the idea that art should take human perception, especially of nature, as a defining quality. He was widely admirer in his own lifetime, and was very prolific, producing hundreds of works.

One of the most important is Impression, Sunrise, which was credited with giving the movement its name. It was painted in 1874, one of six in a series depicting his home town, Le Havre. A 48 x 63 cm oil on canvas, it depicts the port of Le Havre at sunrise, and had mixed reviews on its debut at the ‘Exhibition of the Impressionists’ in Paris. The idea of painting an impression of a scene rather than the reality of it is now more understood, and Monet’s work is legendary today.

Currently residing in the National Gallery in Prague in the Czech Republic, The Maiden was one of Klimt’s final paintings, finished in 1913, just five years before his early death at 55. After his extravagant ‘Gold Period’, his later works returned to a wider palette, full of intense colour and floral ornamentation.

This 1.9 x 2.0 metre oil on canvas depicts a woman in blue with spirals on her dress, interlaced with six other women. Each woman is meant to represent a different stage of life, especially with regards to love and sexuality. Whatever the case, a particularly vibrant, and much admired painting by an artist whose work commands phenomenal prices at auction.